Synthetic resin bag

ABSTRACT

A bag for receiving purchased goods is proposed which can be hung on a hanger device and which can be opened fast with only one hand without causing the rest of the bags never ruffled nor disarranged. The bag includes a front sheet, a back sheet, and pleats connecting side edges of the front and back sheets together. Each pleats is folded inwardly such that a fold line is formed inside of the side edges of the front and back sheets. The front and back sheets and the pleats have their bottom edges welded together. The bag further includes upwardly protruding handles at both ends of the top edge of the bag. Each of the front and back sheets has a tongue portion formed on the top edge thereof between the handles. Each sheet is formed with holes near the top edge thereof and between the tongue and the fold lines of the pleats, and further formed with cutting guides each extending from one of the holes to the top edge thereof. Each tongue is formed with a hole, and a cutting guide extending the entire width of the tongue below the hole.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

This invention relates to a synthetic resin bag which can behand-carried with purchased goods received therein.

In a typical Japanese supermarket, drugstore or any other large-scalestore, a shopper picks up goods he or she wants to buy, puts them in abasket or cart of the store, brings the basket or cart to a cashcounter, and puts the basket or the goods on the register counter. Thecashier picks up the purchased goods from the basket one by one to scanthe bar-codes, and transfers them in another basket, and, when all thiswork is done, hands one or more plastic shopping bag to the shopper.After payment, the shopper picks up the basket filled with the purchasedgoods and brings it to a separate table or counter, where the shopperputs the purchased goods into the plastic shopping bag or bags. Namely,self-service style is adopted.

In some stores, a cashier and another packaging assistant are stationedat each cash register counter. The packaging assistant selects asuitable bag or bags, puts the goods purchased by each shopper into theselected bag or bags, seals the bag and hands it to the shopper.

With this new system, it is possible to omit separate tables or counterson which shoppers put purchased goods into bags. This saves the facilitycost and space and saves the shopper from the trouble of bagging ontheir own all the goods they purchased.

Also, since the bags are sealed by the backaging assistant, any crookedshopper is discouraged from coming back into the store, sneak additionalgoods into the bag containing goods of which the payment has beenfinished, and leave the store, bypassing the cashier by virtue of thebag provided by the cashier and serving as evidence that the payment wasalready made. Thus, this is also a less conspicuous way to prevent or atleast discourage shoplifting.

But stationing two people at each casher's counter is of courseuneconomical from the viewpoint of the labor cost.

One way to save the labor cost is for a cashier to do the packagingassistant's job. But this doubles the cashier's job, thus putting anexcessive burden on the cashier.

Typical plastic shopping bags used in e.g. supermarkets to put purchasedgoods are polyethylene bags having grip portions at both sides on top.Numerous such bags are folded flat and stacked near each cashier. If acashier also serves as a packaging assistant, a plurality of shelves forkeeping bags of different size from the bags in the other shelves arearranged around the cashier on a single horizontal plane so that thecashier can easily pull out a bag from any shelf. Because the shelvesare arranged on a single horizontal plane, they take up a large space.When the cashier pulls out the topmost bag from a selected shelf in anirritated hurried manner, the remaining bags tend to be ruffled andscatter. This makes it more difficult to pull out a single bag neatlynext time.

After pulling out a bag, the cashier has to open the bag using bothhands. Thus, the cashier cannot do any other jobs while opening the bag.Moreover, in order to keep the mouth of the bag open, the casher has tokeep holding the bag with one hand. This extremely lowers the efficiencyof the cashier.

An object of the present invention is to provide a bag of theabovementioned type which can be hung on a hanger device, which can beopened with a single hand, which can keep its mouth open without theneed of a support by a hand, and which can be removed from the hangerdevice without scattering the remaining bags.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

According to this invention, there is provided a plastic shopping bagfor receiving purchased goods, the bag being formed of a synthetic resinand comprising a front sheet, a back sheet, and pleats each connectingone side edge of the front sheet to a corresponding side edge of theback sheet, each of the pleats being folded inwardly such that a foldline is formed inside of the respective side edges of the front and backsheets, the front and back sheets and the pleats have their bottom edgeswelded together to close the bottom of the bag, the bag furtherincluding upwardly protruding handles at both ends of a top edge of thebag, each of the front and back sheets having a tongue portion formed onthe top edge thereof between the handles, each of the tongues beingformed with a first hole, each of the front and back sheets being formedtwo second holes for hanging up the bag itself, and further formed witha perpendicular cutting guide extending from each of the second holes tothe top edge thereof, and a perforated cutting guide extending over theentire width of the tongue below the first hole.

Preferably, each of the front and back sheets is formed with a cut belowa line connecting the second holes, the cut defining a tab. Each of thetabs is preferably formed with a finger catch that engages a finger andprevents slip of the finger on the tab.

Preferably, the handles are each formed with a hole through which afinger can be inserted to grab the handle.

The bag of this invention may have a small semi-circular puller-tabshaped out by a half-moon slit located straight down from the hole inthe tongue and just a little down from the invisible straight horizontalline extending between the two second holes. This puller-tab may have aslit or hole in the center with which the frontmost sheet alone can beeasily singled out by just rubbing together the tips of the thumb andthe index finger through the slit or the hole.

This singling out of the frontmost sheet by the rubbing of the twofingertips makes it possible to open the mouth of the foremost one fromall the other bags kept hung behind it on the hanger device. Besidesthis, a hole may be made near the top edge of each of the handle partsto keep the handles themselves aloof from the bag's mouth.

The plastic shopping bag of this invention is made of polyethylenetubular material which is folded flat with two pleats with the lateralsides held between the two sheets, the frontal one and the rear one, cutto a required length and both the bottom side end and the pleat ends arewelded together to provide tightly sealed bottom.

Besides, two handles are shaped out at the top by cutting into either ofthe front sheet and the rear sheet on both their inner sides leavingtheir outer parts left uncut. Now the handles are comprised of foursheets, namely, the front sheet, back sheet, pleated part now into twosheets. The handle parts are welded at the top ends and the cutting ismade to go beyond the pleated end so that the handles will form a hollowloop so that the hand can go through for gripping.

Still besides, both the front sheet and the back sheet have on theircentral top area an upward protrusion or a tongue with the broader neckpart extending into a narrower head part with an intermittent severingline made at the top area of the broader neck part.

Further, the puller tab mentioned above is made inside the U-shapeincision given to both the front sheet and the back sheet. This pullertab has a hole or a slit of various shapes.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Other features and objects of this invention will become apparent fromthe following description when taken with reference to the accompanyingdrawings, in which:

FIG. 1A is a front view of the bag according to this invention;

FIG. 1B is a cross-section taken along line B-B of FIG. 1A;

FIG. 2 is a partial perspective view of the bag of FIG. 1A, showing itsupper portion;

FIG. 3 is a partial perspective view of the bag of FIG. 1A, showing howit is hung on a hanger device;

FIG. 4 is a view similar to FIG. 3 when the mouth is opened.

FIG. 5 is a side view of the bag of FIG. 1A when it is hung on a hangerdevice with its mouth open; and

FIGS. 6A to 6C show bags of the present invention formed with differentfinger catches in the puller tab portions.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

Referring to the drawings, the bag 1 according to this invention isformed of a synthetic resin, and comprises a front sheet 2, a back sheet3 and inwardly folded pleats 4 connecting the side edges of the sheet 2to the corresponding side edges of the sheet 3. The sheets 2 and 3 andthe pleats 4 are welded together along their bottom edges as shown at 5to close the bottom of the bag 1.

The bag 1 has handles 6 each protruding upwardly from one end of the topedge of the bag. Between the handles 6, the top edges of the sheets 2and 3 are not welded together to form a top opening of the bag 1 throughwhich purchased goods can be put into the bag 1. In the middle of thetop edge, each of the sheets 2 and 3 has an upwardly protruding tongue 8that overlaps with the tongue 8 of the other of the sheets 2 and 3.

Near the top edge at both sides and adjacent to the inner end of the twopleats 4, each of the sheets 2 and 3 is formed with a pair of holes 9aligned with the corresponding holes 9 of the other of the sheets 2 and3. Near the top ends, the tongues 8 of the sheets 2 and 3 are formedwith a through hole 10 on its top area. A cutting line or guide 11 suchas a perforation line is formed in each of the sheets 2 and 3 so as toextend from each hole 9 to the top edge of the sheet 2 or 3. Below thehole 10, a horizontal, cutting line or guide 12 such as a perforationline extends over the entire width of each tongue 8.

The holes 10 are located above the holes 9 so that the holes 9 and 10formed in each of the sheets 2 and 3 configure three vertices of anisosceles triangle.

A plurality of such bags as described above are made from a thin tubularmaterial of polyethylene, e.g., in the following manner:

First, a thin synthetic resin tube is pressed with both sides foldedinwardly in V shape as deeply as desired so that the sheets 2 and 3 andthe pleats 4 are stacked one over another as shown in FIG. 1B. The tubeis then cut to a plurality of portions having a desired length so thateach portion comprises the front sheet 2, the back sheet 3 and thepleats 4. The sheets 2 and 3 and the pleats 4 are thereafter weldedtogether along the bottom edges thereof to form the bottom of the bag.

The handles 6 and the tongues 8 are formed by cutting out the top edgeof the bag 1 substantially in the shape of an upended M as shown at 13.As shown in FIG. 2, each handle 6 comprises a total of four overlappedsheet portions, i.e. a portion of the front sheet 2, a portion of theback sheet 3 and folded portions of each pleat 4. The four sheetportions have their top edges welded together as shown at 14. As shownin FIGS. 4 and 5, when the top edge of the bag is cut out substantiallyin the shape of an upended M, the portions of the pleats 4 forming thehandles 6 are cut along their inner fold lines to form holes 15 throughwhich a hand can pass to hold the handles 6.

Each tongue 8 comprises a lower wide portion 8a, which connects to thetop edge of the sheet 2 or 3, and an upper narrow portion 8b connectingto the wide portion 8a. The hole 10 is formed in the narrow portion 8anear its top end. The cutting line or guide 12 extends over the entirewidth of the wide portion 8a near its top end.

In each of the sheets 2 and 3, near the top edge thereof but a littlebelow the imaginary line connecting the holes 9, a U-shaped cut 16 isformed to define a tab portion 17 in which a finger catch 18 to help tocatch one single topmost/foremost tab in between the finger tips isformed.

The finger catch 18 makes it easier for anyone to pick up only thetopmost/foremost one of the tabs 17 by rubbing the tip of the thumbagainst that of the index finger passed through the catch 18 with ahaphazardly picked up top layer part of the tabs held in between them tomake sure that the mouth of only the first bag gets opened.

The finger catch 18 may be a punched hole, a cut or a slit.Specifically, the finger catch 18 may be a vertical slit as shown inFIG. 6A, a horizontal slit as shown in FIG. 6B, or a circular hole asshown in FIG. 6C.

The finger catch 18 may also be shaped in any other way. For example, itmay be a vertical, horizontal or oblique groove, an oblique slit, an X-,V- or U-shaped slit, or a hole in the shape of a flower, a heart, spade,diamond or club of a playing cards, a company symbol or any otherdevice. If the finger catch is a groove or a slit, it preferablyterminates with circular holes 18a as shown to prevent the end of theslit from tearing further from the end of such a groove or slit. When afingertip is thrusted into it to widen it, similar circular holes 18 aare also preferably formed at both ends of the U-shaped cut 16 for thesame effect against the pull by the tab 17.

Cutouts 19 are preferably formed along the top edge of each of thesheets 2 and 3 on both sides of the tongue 8 so that when the frontsheet 2 is pulled to open the mouth 7 of the bag, the tongue 8 of thesheet 2 more readily separates from the tongue 8 of the back sheet 3 andthus the mouth 7 of the bag 1 can be more readily opened and wider thanwhen no such cutouts are made. This of course makes it easier to putpurchased goods.

A plurality of such bags are hung on three rods 21 and 22 (FIG. 4) byinserting the rods 21 into the holes 9 and the rod 22 into the holes 10.Each handle 6 is formed with a hole 20 near its top end, and adiscontinuous cut-line 20 a extending from the hole 20 to the outer edgeof the handle. With a plurality of bags according to the presentinvention hung on the three rods, an elastic ring 26 is inserted in theholes 20 of the handles 6 on each side of the bags. The elastic rings 26prevent the handles 6 of each bag from falling into the bag when themouth 7 is opened, and also keep the mouth 7 wide open, so that largeitems can be easily bagged.

With a plurality of bags hung on the three rods 21 and 22 andadditionally to the elastic rings 26, the tab 17 of one of the sheets 2and 3 of the forefront bag is pulled to open its mouth 7 to bagpurchased goods.

As shown in FIGS. 3-5, the three rods 21 and 22 and the elastic rings 26are elements of a bag hanger device A. As shown, the rod 22 is providedin the rear of the rods 21. The hanger device A further includes asupport plate 23 on or through which are arranged the rods 21 and 22 tosupport upper portions of the bags as shown in FIG. 5, and anothersupport plate 24 for supporting the bottoms of the bags.

Each of the rods 21 and 22 is a metallic wire comprising a horizontalportion and a vertical portion extending vertically upwardly from oneend of the horizontal portion. The distances between the rods 21 and 22and the position of the support plate 24 are adjusted according to thedistances between the holes 9 and 10 and the vertical dimension of thebags to be hung on the hanger device A.

Since the holes 9 and 10 of each bag are provided at the respectivevertices of an isosceles triangle, the three rods 21 and 22, which areto be inserted in the respective holes 9 and 10, are supported on thesupport plate 23 (FIG. 5) so as to be arranged on the respectivevertices of an isosceles triangle. The support plate 23 is alsosubstantially in the shape of an isosceles triangle with the rods 21 and22 arranged near their respective apexes. The support plate 23 has afront edge which is located slightly in front of the line connecting therods 21 (see FIGS. 3 and 4). The tab portions 17 of each bag areprovided such that their top edges will substantially erectnear-horizontally from the front edge of the support plate 23 when thebag is hung on the rods 21 and 22 by inserting the rods 21 and 22 intothe respective holes 9 and 10. Thus, in this state, the portion of eachbag above the horizontal line including the top edges of the tabs 17rests on the support plate 23 with the remaining portion hanging fromthe front edge of the support plate 23.

In this state, because each bag is bent downward along the top edges ofthe tabs 17, the tabs tend to erect near-horizontally so as to besubstantially flush with the top surface of the support plate 23 asclearly shown in FIGS. 3 and 4. The tabs 17 can thus be easily pickedwith two fingers, the thumb and the index finger for example.

As shown in FIG. 5, the hanger device A may be a permanently fixed typein which both the rods 21 and 22 and the support plate 24 are mounted toa vertical, stationary wall 25. While not shown, the hanger device A maybe of a type disclosed in (unexamined) JP patent publication2001-315726, which was filed by the applicant of this invention. Thatis, the hanger device disclosed in this publication comprises a base, avertical pillar supported on the base, a rotary cylinder rotatablymounted on the pillar, and a plurality of bag-engaging frames or platesmounted to the outer surface of the rotary cylinder and each carrying abag-hanging member and a support plate at its upper and lower portionsaccording to the size of bags to be hung.

The hanger device A is placed near a cashier counter loaded with a stackof a large number of the bags according to this invention hang thereonby inserting the rods 21 and 22 into the holes 9 and 10 of therespective bags with their upper portions supported on the support plate23 and their bottoms supported on the support plate 24.

As shown in FIGS. 3 and 4, elastic rings 26 are inserted in the holes 20formed in the respective handles 6 of the bags near their top ends withthe handles 6 bent forwardly.

In this state, in order to put purchased goods into the forefront bag,the cashier picks only the front tab 17 with fingertips. But the frontand rear tabs 17 are often stuck together, so that the cashier may pickboth the front and rear tabs 17 randomly with the fingertips pushed intothe central opening of the tabs 17. By simply rubbing the fingertipsagainst each other with the tabs 17 squeezed in between them, the fingercatches 18 of the top tab 17 comes off the other under it, so that thetwo fingers are separated from each other by the tabs 17. The cashiercan thus easily recognize that the forefront one of the tabs 17 is nowsingled out, because if only the front tab 17 is held between the twofingertips, the two fingertips are fully in direct contact with eachother at the area where there is the opening of the finger catch 18. Ifthe cashier detects that both the forefront and rear tabs 17 are heldbetween the two fingertips, he or she pulls it toward them in oppositedirections to each other while either of the fingertips is engaged inthe finger catches 18 to separate them from each other until the reartab 17 disengages from the fingers. With only the front tab 17 heldbetween the fingers, the cashier pulls it. When the front tab 17 ispulled, the front sheet 2 only will be torn along the cut-lines 11 and12, so that the front sheet 2 will disengage from the rods 21 with thenarrow portion 8b of the tongue 8 still caught by the rod 22.

When only the front tab 17 is pulled in the above-described manner, notension is applied to the back sheet 3, so that the back sheet 3 isnever affected and remains engaged by the rods 21 and 22 with only thetop portion of the front sheet 2 now separated from the back sheet 3.The mouth 7 of the bag 1 is thus opened wide as shown in FIGS. 4 and 5.

When the mouth 7 is opened wide, the holes 15 formed in the handles 6also expand as shown in FIG. 5. Fingers or a hand can thus be easilyinserted into the holes 15 to grab the handles 6 and lift up the bag.

As will be apparent from the above description, the mouth 7 of the bagcan be easily opened wide with two fingers of one hand.

With the mouth of the bag wide open, the elastic rings 26 keep thehandles 6 bent as shown in FIG. 4, thus preventing the handles 6 fromdropping into the mouth 7 of the bag. Thus, even large items can bebagged easily.

With the mouth of a bag wide open, a cashier picks up, one by one, thegoods the customer has selected, scans them, and immediately puts theminto the bag in regular and rapid sequence. Since the bag 1 has itsbottom supported on the support plate 24, no tension is applied to theback sheet 3 no matter how heavy the contents of the bag are. The backsheet 3 is thus stably kept hanging from the rods 21 and 22 with theleast possibility of the bag from falling off them.

When all the purchases have been bagged and the payment has been made,the cashier inserts fingers of both hands into the holes 15 to grab thehandles 6, and pulls the handles 6 with a sufficient force such that theback sheet 3 is torn first along the cut-line 12 and then along thecut-lines 11. When the bag is further pulled, it is torn along thecut-line 20 a. Now the bag 1 is free from the rods 21, 22 and theelastic rings 26. The cashier then seals the mouth of the bag with e.g.adhesive tape and hands the bag to the customer.

As described above, simply by pulling the tab 17 of the front sheet 2 ofa bag 1 hanging from the rods 21 and 22 with two fingers of one hand,the mouth 7 of the bag 1 can be opened wide. Thus, while opening themouth of a bag with one hand, the cashier can use the other hand to pickup goods and scan the bar-codes. Once the mouth 7 is opened, it remainsopen on its own. The cashier can thus use one hand to pick up goods andscan the bar-code, and the other hand to put goods into the bag. Afterbags have been removed from the rods 21 and 22, the narrow portions 8 bof the tongues 8 will be still held by the rod 22, so that they willnever scatter around. This eliminates the need to frequently clean thefloor to remove debris of bags.

Since numerous bags are hung from the rods 21 and 22, they take up lessspace compared to bags laid flat on a horizontal plane. Since all thebags are held by the rods, they will never scatter around, none affectedby the forefront one that gets clear of all the rest in its back.

1. A plastic shopping bag for receiving purchased goods, said bag beingformed of a synthetic resin and comprising a front sheet, a back sheet,and pleats each connecting one side edge of said front sheet to acorresponding side edge of said back sheet, each of said pleats beingfolded inwardly such that a fold line is formed inside of the respectiveside edges of said front and back sheets, said front and back sheets andsaid pleats have their bottom edges welded together to close the bottomof said bag, said bag further including upwardly protruding handles atboth ends of a top edge of the bag, each of said front and back sheetshaving a tongue portion formed on the top edge thereof between saidhandles, each of said tongues being formed with a first hole, each ofsaid front and back sheets being formed two second holes for hanging upsaid bag itself, and further formed with a perpendicular cutting guideextending from each of said second holes to the top edge thereof, and aperforated cutting guide extending over the entire width of said tonguebelow said first hole.
 2. The bag of claim 1 wherein each of said frontand back sheets is formed with a cut below an invisible line connectingsaid second holes, said cut defining a puller tab.
 3. The bag of claim 2wherein each of said puller tabs is formed with a finger catch thatengages a fingertip, thus making it possible to separate said frontsheet from said back sheet.
 4. The bag of claim 1, wherein said handlesare each formed with a hole near its top end through which a tool forholding said handle in position can be inserted.
 5. The bag of claim 2,wherein said handles are each formed with a hole near its top endthrough which a tool for holding said handle in position can beinserted.
 6. The bag of claim 3, wherein said handles are each formedwith a hole near its top end through which a tool for holding saidhandle in position can be inserted.